HIAS celebrates 120 yearsTimelineHIAS celebrates 120 yearsThe Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society will celebrate its 120th anniversary with "HIAS Day," Sunday, Sept. 9, in Brooklyn, N.Y. HIAS Day will spotlight personal testimonials representing 12 decades of immigration, starting in the 1880s. Featured guests include former HIAS clients Hadassah Lieberman and Olympic gold medalist Lenny Krayzelburg. They are both members of the HIAS Hall of Fame, which also includes Mandy Patinkin, Yakov Smirnoff, Henry Kissinger and Elie Wiesel. HIAS was founded in New York in 1881 and since then has offered food, shelter and other aid to more than 4.5 million people. This includes the 1 million Jewish refugees it helped migrate to Israel. 120 years of HIAS help1881: The Russian Emigrant Relief Committee, a temporary body established to help Jews escaping Czarist Russia, forms the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society. The new organization provides meals, transportation and employment counseling to arrivals at New York's Castle Garden, the main immigrant processing center of that time.1882: Mass exodus of Russian Jews begins after Czar Alexander II is assassinated and his successor Alexander III spurs widespread pogroms. Almost 20,000 Russian Jews arrive in the United States during 1881 and 1882. In New York, the first Jewish shelter is established on the lower East Side. 1891: The Russian government expels the 20,000 Jewish residents of Moscow, who flee to various countries. More than 107,000 Jews immigrate to the United States during 1891 and 1892. 1892: The processing center for immigrants to the United States moves from Castle Gardens to Ellis Island, where it will operate until 1954. 1902: The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is established. 1904: HIAS begins sending representatives to Ellis Island to help defend would-be immigrants scheduled for deportation hearings. 1914: The onslaught of World War I brings the largest arrival of Europe's Jews to the United States in any single year - 138,051 disembark at Ellis Island. Jewish immigrant aid societies in Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia become branches of HIAS. 1915: HIAS intervenes on behalf of immigrants from the Ottoman Turkish Empire and France, securing their right to remain in the United States by pledging that the new arrivals will not become public charges. 1917: Opposition to America's liberal immigration policy leads to passage of a highly restrictive immigration act, with further reductions of quotas to come in 1921 and 1924. 1933: Adolph Hitler takes power in Germany. By April, a boycott is imposed against Jewish businesses; Jews are ousted from all government posts. HIAS contributes money to the Jewish Agency for Palestine and to Youth Aliyah to help bring German and Polish Jews to British-controlled Palestine. 1936: Following passage of the Nuremberg Laws, the persecution of Jews intensifies and a new wave of emigration begins. The British issue a White Paper virtually cutting off immigration to Palestine. HIAS successfully intercedes on behalf of Jews waiting in Duropean ports who already holds documents for migration to Palestine. 1938: Nazi takeover of Austria cuts off 180,000 Austrian Jews; thousands are deported from Italy. HIAS helps 8,846 German Jews to escape through the Soviet Union to Japan and reach the United States. 1954: HIAS funds shelters in Latin America, England, Australia and New Zealand. In Israel, HIAS helps operate 70 immigration shelters and hostels. 1960: HIAS helps resettle Cuban Jews arriving in the United States. 1961: HIAS begins work in the effort to help Moroccan Jews make aliyah, arranging with King Hassan for the evacuation of his country's huge Jewish community to France en route to Israel. Early 1960s: As a result of nationalistic revolutions in North Africa ending French colonization of the region, HIAS rescues Jews from Algeria and Libya. 1967: In the wake of the Six-Day War, 25,000 Jews flee Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Lebanon. HIAS helps more than 2,800 find new homes in Western Europe, the United States and Canada. 1972: Soviet Jews emigrate in large numbers, with 32,000 resettling in Israel. 1975: The United States government turns to HIAS and other resettlement agencies to help resettle Vietnamese refugees. HIAS initiates its Indochinese resettlement program. 1977: HIAS' representative in Israel begins work to help evacuate the Jews of Ethiopia. 1979: Almost 52,000 Jews emigrate from the Soviet Union; HIAS helps 34,000 find new homes in the West. HIAS also assists in immigration of Iranian Jews to the United States. 1990: HIAS brings 25,000 refugees remaining in Vienna and Rome to the United States. 1995: The HIAS affiliate network begins to provide resettlement service to Iranian members of the Baha'i faith. 1996: HIAS begins resettlement of nearly 100 Kurds evacuated from Northern Iraq. 1999: At the request of the U.S. government, HIAS helps resettle Kosovar and African refugees. Source: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society |
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